


Evidence of things not Seen

by karrenia_rune



Category: Marrakeesh Night-Loreenna McKennit (song)
Genre: Gen, Gift Fic, Inspired by Music, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9156565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: Dear apatternedfever, I love Lorenna McKennit's music and when I came across this prompt when scrolling through requests, It's one that I've wanted to give it a whirl. I know it's from an older round but I hope this serves!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [apatternedfever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/apatternedfever/gifts).



Disclaimer" the song and lyrics are the original creation of Loreena McKennit; they are not mine.  
I claim only the words and the original characters of the Mentor Mage and Aryn and the old Vendor in the Night Market.

"Evidence of Things not Seen" 

The first thing that hits him is the smells; sweat and dust, and the mirror shimmer overlay that the city takes on especially during the hottest seasons of the year when the very air shimmers like sunlight of the brass and gold merchants' quarters.

The mingled aroma of spices and cooking waft on an evening breeze and make his stomach rumble

 

He eyed the counter of the almond candy vendors longingly, but does not pause for he knew that his master would say that the needs of the body come before the needs of the mind, nevertheless he surreptitiously fingers the coins in his pouch and promises that they will come back and purchase a sack when the lesson is completed.

Once, as a young man, he been drawn to that shimmer much in the same way that moth is said to be drawn to the proverbial flame. 

He had been very young then, he recalls and naive; Aryn admired gold for its sheen, even before it had been cut and polished and hammered into various and myriad pleasing shapes.

When he was old enough to leave home and be apprenticed to a guild he had thought he become of the goldsmiths, however fate or his something within him that he could never quite identify had led him along a different path entirely and the meeting with Maleek. In Arabic, the name meant 'messenger."

Ever since that day every day had been a lesson, and today is one Aryn had been anticipating for a very long time. It would be infuriating if he had not learned the value of patience and preserving both as goldsmith and an apprentice mage.

The lesson is one that his master, Maleek had promised that he would teach him one of those fine days but that fine day never seemed to come around until now. It is one that as much as Aryn pressed his mentor for, the older man kept him at arm's length. 

 

Together they wound through the throngs of the bazaar, taking in the sights and sounds. When they came to the brass quarter where pots and lamps and coffee urns hung in myriad rows. 

The vendor who operated this particular stall glanced up and gave Maleek a knowing glance. 

Aryn noticed this but choose to mention nothing about it; he assumed that his mentor had obviously done business with this man and that the two men had had a previous assocation.

The old man lined face had seen many winters but his hair worn close to his scalp was only lightly streaked with gray, and if one looked closely his dark eyes had tiny gossamer-thin nictating membranes that lay directly below the eyelids.

 

The vendor who had indeed done business with Maleek before, although some of those old transactions tended to verge a bit on the strange side; kept fire salamanders as pets. He also sold trinkets and amulets, powders and poisons if you knew the correct passwords. Not all of his clients were of Maleek's caliber and not all subscribed to 'white magic'. However, be that as it may, they got along very well.

The community of magic users and those who provided the tools of the trade had become over the years a close-knit one. Aryn would have to learn one day, and this was as good a time to learn about it as any.

Maleek ordered him to close his eyes, concentrate and open again. Once he had done as requested Aryn thought he was seeing as through a watery lens but what he saw gradually came clearer as he waited.

He could now see multi-color iridescent outlines around people and objects, Maleek explained that these were auras, some represented their inner being or emotional state; others, the ones that darted in an out of focus and were much more agitated represented spirits of the air, water, and were usually lower order spirits of the unseen and supernatural world.

A tongue of flame unexpectedly and startling leaped up and out from a smoking brazier and skittered towards them, in his heightened state of awareness Aryn could see that the source of the fire was a small tapered salamander.

The creature skittered and all over and around the market of the brass merchants then leapt from a high perch and landed within inches of Aryn's high-arched leather boots; eyeing him speculatively, and within it's slotted, heavy-lidded eyes Aryn fancied that he could see the spark of intelligence within their depths. In the silence of his mind, he thought he heard it whisper :

_"The lessons are written_  
On parchments of paper  
They're carried by horse from the river Nile  
Says the shadowy voice  
In the firelight, the cobra  
Is casting the flame a winsome smile."" >

_"What are you saying?" Aryn whispers back using not his tongue but his inner voice._

_The creature replies," Oh, young, mage, meaning only this: no one is ever told what would happen. Would you like my mask or my mirror? There are something that cannot be taught, some secrets that you must discover and learn for your own self."_

__

 

"You see, Aryn, most people see what is immediately around them, what can be experienced through the four senses, sight, sound, taste, touch.  
However, there is a school of thought among magic users that it is possible to reach beyond that and 'see and experience another plane of existence."

"Yes, Mage," Aryn replied. "It, it is wonderful! Why don't more, I mean..." He trailed off. 

Maleek chuckled, "I imagine, is that most of us would prefer to take the world as it is presented to us, the sudden sensory input of the world that lies beyond this one...." He waved his arms in a broad gesture all around the market, as those the vendors, browsers, and crowd meandered all around them; oblivious to their discussion, "Well, it can be more than a little overwhelming, and not only that it can be dangerous to the uninitiated."

"Dangerous? Yes, because were traversing onto that plane to the extent of our own abilities, but that other danger is that things that dwell on the other side are capable of crossing over onto ours. Not all of these meetings, whether by chance or by design, are, shall we say, friendly."

"I understand, Mage," replied Aryn as steadily and as calmly as he could.

"Did you see the fire salamandar?"

"Yes."

"That's one spirit, a spirit of fire, there are many more, and magic is magic and that in itself can be a danger,"

"I understand, Mage."

Maleek nodded. "Good, Promise me something, young Aryn." 

"Anything, Mage." Aryn replied.

His mentor leaned close and whispered in his ear:  
_"'The stories are woven_  
And fortunes are told  
The truth is measured by the weight of your gold  
The magic lies scattered  
On rugs on the ground/ Faith is conjured in the night market's sound"t;

_The fragment of this canto has the cadence of the poem an Aryn wonders what it signifies even as he committed it to memory. In his normal speaking voice, his mentor added:_

_"Promise me that you will remember that and will remember what you have learned here tonight."_

_Aryn nodded emphatically and replied, "I will remember."_

**Author's Note:**

> Dear apatternedfever, I love Lorenna McKennit's music and when I came across this prompt when scrolling through requests, It's one that I've wanted to give it a whirl. I know it's from an older round but I hope this serves!


End file.
